They say we're too young now to amount to anything else. But look around, we work too damn, hard for this just to give it up now. If you don't swim, you'll drown; but don't move, honey…

"I'm usually not that stressed about exams but I honestly don't think I can pass this. I mean, I've been studying for two hours, and I have you here to help me, which should really be distracting but its not because I keep imagining you having lizard legs so I can stop myself from being attracted to you… Which was so not my point, but anyway, all I'm saying is that this is hopeless…"

"Stiles," Lydia sighed, staring at me with that bored but smirky expression she does so well, "I will not let you fail this bio exam."

"Good, because I've been working way too hard to fail this, and I need to pass this to stay on the lacrosse team because coach will definitely be angry if I don't do well so I mean this is really -"

"Stiles!" she barked, cutting me off sharply, her green eyes annoyed. "You are not going to fail, stop talking like that. Focus!"

I sighed and settled back into my chair, "Okay, okay. Sorry. Lizard legs… Sorry."

"Okay, so list the parts of the cell."

"Mitochondria, cell wall, cell membrane, nucleus…"

"There's a few more," Lydia urged.

But my brain was scurrying to a million different topics and I couldn't think of the rest. It was bad enough Lydia had actually agreed to help me for this exam. I was nervous to be in the same room with her for fear I'd do something stupid. It was only making it worse that she was sitting on my bed because she'd agreed to come to my house. I mean, she looked so cute sitting on my comforter with her legs dangling over the side. Her high heels kicked off to the side, jacket on the floor with her backpack. She looked comfortable, and I wanted to sit next to her on the bed and play with her hair and appreciate her… But I had to study.

"Stiles, come on! How could you forget cytoplasm? You said that one was your favorite because it sounded like a superhero."

"It does," I replied, "Look! It's a bird, it's a plane, no it's… Cytoplasm!"

Lydia rolled her eyes, "Okay, you're right, you're going to fail the exam."

"No come on!" I whined, "I'm sorry, I'm just distracted. I forgot to take my Adderall this morning." And it doesn't help that you look stunning in that blouse…

"Look, how about we make a deal?" Lydia replied, pursing her lips in thought. "If you can get all of these practice questions right, then we can get ice cream after."

"Like, together? We can get ice cream together?"

"Not a date. But yes, together. My treat, okay?"

I tried not to be too giddy about her proposition, but it was making my heart flutter relentlessly.

By the time we'd finished studying, and I'd finally mastered all the cell parts and their functions as well as various other cell topics, it was 11:00 PM. Lydia was practically asleep on the bed and I was slouching in my chair as much as possible.

"I think you'll do fine," Lydia said groggily, "But my gosh that took forever…"

"Are you going to be okay to drive home?" I asked her, sitting up so I could see her better.

She didn't respond so I repeated myself, but then I noticed she'd fallen asleep.

"Lydia," I said softly, shaking her shoulder, "Wake up, you have to go home."

Her eyes fluttered open, "Can I just stay here?"

Yes, yes please… "I think you'd be happier if you go home, do you want me to drive you?"

"No, I want to stay," she replied, a sleepy smile spreading on her face.

"Um, Lydia, I don't think you're going to like that decision in the morning…" Not to mention where was I going to sleep? And what would my dad say if he found her in my room?

"But I'm so comfy Stiles… Don't make me move."

I tried to gently rouse her but she wasn't budging. "Um… Okay, so here's what we're going to do. I'm going to pick you up and I'll take you downstairs, because really this is nice of you to want to stay in my bed, and normally I'd be down for that, but I think you're just tired so this is a bad idea. So I'll take you home, okay?"

"Stiles," Lydia said firmly, "Just let me stay, it's fine."

I sighed deeply and nodded, "Um… Okay, yeah… Okay, I'll sleep on the couch then…"

So that's what I did. I tucked Lydia in carefully and crept downstairs with a spare blanket, then sprawled out on the couch in the living room. Terrified of what tomorrow was going to bring.

You look so perfect standing there, in my American Apparel underwear…

In the morning I ventured upstairs, expecting to hear Lydia scream when she woke up in my bed. But instead I found her wide awake and brushing her hair in my mirror. "Good morning," she said happily, "Thanks for letting me stay the night, do you have a shirt I can borrow? I totally can't wear the same thing I had on yesterday, and I'm sure I can figure out a way to make one of your button downs look good on me."

"Uh… Yeah, sure…" I replied, "Good morning… Um, are you okay? I mean, are you feeling okay? Because you're in my room, and you stayed the night…"

"Yeah? So? I'm fine, nothing happened. I was tired, we had a sleepover. No biggie."

"Okay…" I replied, beginning to rummage in my drawers for a shirt she could borrow. I found a red plaid button down which I handed to her, "How's this?"

She smiled politely, "That'll do. Now go out so I can change."

"Uh yeah, sure…" I said, stepping into the hall and closing the door.

A few seconds later she was calling my name. "Do you want me to come in, are you decent?"

"Yes, Stiles," came her unamused reply. "This shirt isn't working," she said through the door.

I opened it slowly, shielding my eyes just in case she wasn't actually decent.

"This doesn't fit," Lydia said throwing the shirt back to me. I had to move my hand to catch it, and then I noticed she was in just a bra and a pair of my boxers….

"Um Lydia…"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Didn't want to go commando or wear dirty panties, so I stole a pair. Sorry."

"It's fine…" I said, not believing my eyes. "Is this what you, um, call decent?"

"What?" she said, eyes wide with confusion, "Like you've never seen a girl's bra before. I'm not naked or anything."

Well actually I haven't seen a girl's bra before… "It's fine," I say. You look perfect…

"So can I try a different shirt, or?"

"Yeah, yeah," I say, pulling a few more from the drawer and handing them to her. My mind was so confused, why exactly did she need me to leave for her to change if she was just going to invite me back into the room when she was half naked anyhow? And why was she okay with taking a pair of my underwear to put on, but not finding a shirt on her own?

"You okay, Stiles?"

"Yeah, I'm fine…"

"You're blushing," Lydia teases, "Am I embarrassing you?"

"Lizard legs…" I mutter, "Um, no, no not at all. I'm fine. I'll let you finish changing."

At school she pretends like nothing happened. Which, technically nothing did happen, but that's besides the point. She was in my bed, sleeping, in my bed. And there was apparently supposed to be no discussion of this. I tried to catch her attention as she walked down the hallway but she, as usual, ignored me and kept walking. She looked super cute in my shirt, which she'd tied at the bottom so it looked a lot more feminine. And oddly she'd had a long flowy black skirt in her bag for "emergencies" she'd told me, and it happened to look perfect with the shirt she'd picked out. Then again, Lydia looked perfect in everything and anything.

"Are you okay?" Scott asked me as he strode up to my locker. "You look like you drank sour milk."

"I'm fine," I reply a bit too quickly, "I just didn't sleep well."

"Oh…" Scott says, deciding not to press on he chose to switch topics. "So, how was studying with Lydia."

I almost jumped out of my skin with that question, but thankfully Scott was used to me being jittery when she was mentioned. "Fine," I said back, "She's a good tutor. I'll be okay on the test, I think."

"Cool," Scott said, "Ready for class then?"

I nodded and slammed my locker shut. Today was going to be a long day…

I finally caught her at the end of the day as she was walking to the parking-lot.

"Lydia, wait!" I called, watching her turn to look at me, her perfect strawberry blond hair swinging as she moved. "Can we talk about what happened last night?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "About what, Stiles? We didn't do anything. I already said that. Why are you so jittery?"

"Because… I really like you, Lydia. And you were in my bed. So I mean, that's kind of a big deal for me and -"

"Stiles," she said quickly, "Calm down. I know you like me, and I'm sorry if it was weird for you having me stay over, if it was that weird it won't happen again, okay?"

"No! No… I mean, yeah… But it's just…"

"Stiles, we're just friends. I'm not going to pressure you if its too weird, I don't want things to get funky between us."

"We're friends?" I choke. Since when does Lydia think of me as a friend?

"Um, yeah?" she retorts, "I mean you kind of have to be, I'm friends with all of your friends."

Right… "Oh, okay, yeah…"

"I'll give you your clothes back tomorrow, okay?" she winks at me and then gets in her car before I can say anything else. All I can think about is her standing in my underwear, in my room, and how somehow we're friends...